


I Want Your Midnights

by sarahalwaysx3



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Fic Exchange, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 10:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13362945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahalwaysx3/pseuds/sarahalwaysx3
Summary: When Jemma Simmons partakes in a game of Truth Or Dare on New Year’s Eve, she decides to make a bold move on a classmate she’s had her eyes on for a little while.





	I Want Your Midnights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [memorizingthedigitsofpi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/memorizingthedigitsofpi/gifts).



> Happy New Year @memorizingthedigitsofpi! I was your partner for @aosficnet2‘s New Year Exchange :) I’m so so sorry I’m posting this almost a week late. The ending is a little rushed because I really wanted to finally get this done, and I know I promised there would be ice cream involved, but I couldn’t find a way to fit that into the story naturally. I hope you enjoy this anyway.
> 
> Prompt: A New Year’s Eve kiss that didn’t quite go as planned

For the 8th time in as many minutes, Jemma Simmons checks her phone. There’s about 26 minutes left until midnight. Her parents had sent her a text to wish her a Happy New Year 4 hours and 34 minutes ago, when Jemma hadn’t even started getting ready for the annual party in the boiler room.

She’d been here for no more than 2 hours, and only at the request of her roommate, Christina. “I’m not gonna have you sit on your bed all night watching that boring old show while you could come with me and maybe meet a cute boy,” the older girl had argued, and that was that. Already, Jemma wishes she had fought back a little more intensely.

Now she’s leaning against a wall in the very back of the boiler room, uncomfortably picking at the label of her still nearly full beer bottle. She feels bad for even holding the drink. She’d only just turned 16 a couple of months ago, much too young to be drinking in the United States. Jemma isn’t a big fan of breaking the rules. She detests it, really.

Her eyes keep roaming the room, trying to find someone interesting to talk to. She’s a lot younger than the other cadets, but none of them are anywhere close to her level of competence.

She sighs and tentatively lifts her beer up to her lips, but just when she takes a sip and cringes at the taste, she hears her name being called.

“Jemma!” Her roommate Christina comes stumbling out of the crowd, clearly drunk, and throws her arms around Jemma’s neck. “Where have you been? I’ve missed you!” An hour ago she hadn’t seemed like she was missing her at all, but but Jemma decides to go along. What’s she got to lose? “Oh, I’ve missed you, too, Christina.” She pats the girls back and rolls her eyes while looking over her shoulder.

“Come on Jemma.” Christina untangles herself from Jemma and grips the other girl by the sleeve. “We’re playing Truth or Dare.”

“Wait, w-what?”, Jemma stammers, but she’s already being dragged across the room, her words drowned out by the crowd. On the other side of the room, 7 people are sitting around a table, the multiple shot glasses in front of them already filled to the brink with all kinds of dangerous looking liquids, both clear and colorful. Jemma didn’t recognize any of the people, which didn’t exactly lift her spirits. Christina pushes her down between a second-year girl and a third-year guy. The boy looks her up and down, or at least that’s what Jemma assumes he’s trying to do, since his eyes are glazed over from the alcohol and his gaze of a little too far off to the right to be directed at Jemma. A bit uncomfortable, she scoots closer to the girl.

“Alright, Truth or Dare”, Christina announces and pushes two shot classes towards each of the contestants, “everyone know the rules?”

A collective nod goes through the round. Jemma is the only one hesitantly shaking her head.

“Okay, it’s simple”, Christina starts explaining, “someone gets to ask you a question and if you don’t want to answer, you take a shot. Then, you have the option of taking a Dare. If you choose not to, or choose to refuse to do what you’re dared, you take two more shots. Then it’s someone else’s turn to ask someone. Got it? Okay. Let’s get started.”

“I don’t think that’s how this game works”, Jemma mumbles, more to herself than anyone else, but around her, the others have already started asking each other the most ridiculous questions and daring each other to do the most absurd tasks.

“Take off your shirt!”

“Tell us a dirty fantasy!”

“Take off your bra under your shirt!”

“Which two people would you want to have a threesome with?”

“Pretend to pole dance!”

“Take off your pants!”

There is a lot of taking off pieces of clothing, which Jemma finds ridiculously immature. Luckily, the contestants mostly look her over when choosing the next player. That is, until Christina explains in great detail how she hooked up with a fourth-year boy in one of the chemistry labs, downs a shot just for the fun of it, and points her finger at her roommate. “Jemma, you haven’t answered any questions yet! I say it’s your turn.”

“Oh, I don’t know-“, Jemma tries to protest, but Christina isn’t having any of it.

“Let’s see.” She seems to consider her next words carefully, before leaning back in her chair with a smirk. “Which of our professors would you want to have sex with?”

Jemma’s eyes widen with shock, and her cheeks suddenly feel hot from embarrassment. She isn’t sure she’s heard correctly. “W-What? T-That’s outrageous! I would never! Our professors are figures of authority, I have nothing but respect for them! I’d never do such a thing!”

Around her, the people on the table start snorting and giggling, and Jemma feels the blood shoot up to her head even more. She can tell that Christina is trying not to laugh at her, but she’s doing a miserable job. “That’s hardly an answer. Wanna reconsider or take the shot?” The glass with the brown liquid is already being held towards Jemma. She can’t really identify what is in it, but judging from the color, it looks like some kind of whiskey or rum.

Frankly, she doesn’t think either choice is a good one, but speaking this way of one of her mentors is absolutely not an option, and technically, the rules are condemning her to take the shot if she doesn’t answer the question.

With a long, deep sigh, Jemma reaches for the small glass and slowly lifts it up to her lips. All eyes are on her as she flinches when the drink first touches her mouth and causes a burning sensation on her tongue. She almost drops the glass and bites down on the inside of her cheek. It’s all she can do to keep back the tears she feels welling up in her eyes.

Her father had always been a big fan of whiskey and other drinks of the sort. When Jemma was younger, he’d sometimes let her dip her pinky in his glass so she could have a try, too. Whatever she’d just drunk, was much, much stronger than anything her dad had ever had at home. She feels a bit stupid for assuming a group of scientists would give her a shot of whiskey when they could easily turn it into pure alcohol.

“All down with it!”, someone behind her shouts, interrupting her thoughts.

Jemma would much rather push back her chair and leave the party right in that instance. However, Jemma Simmons was a lot of things, but a quitter wasn’t one of them.

She sucks in a sharp breath, sits up straight, and downs the remains of her drink in one swig. A hot shiver runs down her spin, and she coughs hard as the people around her start roaring and cheering.

When the noise ebbs away, one of the boys raises both his hands, clears his throat, and announce: “Well, while that was pretty impressive, we can’t forget about the dare.” He turns towards Christina and winks at her mischievously.

Jemma’s lips tingle from the alcohol, and she has a hard time focusing on the boy’s words, but Christina seems to have none of these problems, despite having had a lot more to drink than Jemma. “Oh! Right!”, she exclaims, obviously excited to make Jemma feel even more embarrassed. “I dare you to pick any person in this room and make out with them for 10 seconds.”

Jemma gulps. She does feel like the shot has given her a certain lightness, but she isn’t quite ready to step out of her comfort zone like that yet. She thinks about her task for a moment, then makes a decision. How bad can two more shots possibly be?

She puts a look on her face that she hopes can be identified as grim determination. In one swift move, she grabs a drink in each hand and downs them both without thinking about it.

Again, the crowd erupts, but Jemma is hardly aware of it. Her ears start ringing and she can feel the alcohol surging through her to the tip of her fingers and toes.

Still busy trying to regain the feeling in most of her body parts, she almost misses the DJ’s announcement: “One minute to the new year!”

Suddenly everyone is up on there feet, pushing past each other to regroup. It takes a moment for Jemma to remember what Christina had told her about the New Years countdown that morning. Apparently, not having a person to kiss as the clock strikes midnight was a bigger deal than a bad great on the final assignments. This morning, Jemma had deemed that statement to be complete and utter rubbish. But now, seeing all the couples around her and feeling a lot more reckless than sober-Jemma would, she makes a decision. After all, she can still blame it on the dare and the alcohol later.

“Countdown’s on! 10 Seconds until midnight!”

_Ten_

Jemma looks around. It’s hard to see anything at all in the crowd, especially a single, attractive guy who isn’t already committed to an impeding kiss.

_Nine_

She spots him near the pool table. The messy curls stand out to her first, followed by the dazzling blue eyes, looking about as comfortable as a fish out of water. The sight makes Jemma’s stomach tingle.

_Eight_

This is probably a terrible idea. She’s never been able to get him to speak more than 3 sentences to her - which defines wasn’t for a lack of trying -, and when he did, he was usually quite rude, ignoring half of her question and giving one-syllable answers. However, he’s the only person who’s ever challenged her intellectually, and there’s just something about him...

_Seven_

With a huff, she starts pushing her way towards the pool table. She’s tried many times to talk to Leo Fitz. She’s sure they’d get on quite nicely. But the guy is just entirely unapproachable, frustrating her to no end.

_Six_

It can’t be a coincidence that he’s here right now, perfectly available just when Jemma needs someone to fulfill a dare.

_Five_

She almost stumbles into him when she reaches the pool table. He has a beer bottle in one hand, just the way she had earlier. It doesn’t look like he’s drank from it at all. “Hi Fitz”, she says, putting her brightest smile on.

_Four_

“Simmons.” He’s clearly surprised, but there’s also another emotion resonating in his voice. Nervousness? Jemma might have imagine it. Why would Leopold Fitz, who is always incredibly sure of himself in class, be nervous around her?

_Three_

They look at each other in awkward silence for just a moment, and Jemma notices Fitz’ mouth twitching slightly, as if he is trying to say something to her but can’t figure out the right words to use.

_Two_

Well, now or never, she thinks, determinedly taking one last step closer to him.

_One_

Moving quickly, she surges forward, pressing her lips to his.

_Happy New Year!_

There is shouting and cheering around them. Behind closed eyes, Jemma notices lights flashing and she feels confetti landing on the top of her head. She stumbles a little but grabs onto the collar of Fitz’s cardigan. That’s when he seems to unfreeze from his initial shock. He melts against her, kissing her back tentatively.

With a tiny surprised sigh, Jemma cracks her eyes open just a little. She’d expected him to push her away, or to yell at her, or to leave. Him kissing her back, that wasn’t an option she’d considered when she’d decided to take on this ridiculous dare.

She loses track of her thoughts again, and focuses on the kiss. Fitz’ lips are surprisingly soft against hers, and she can’t help but notice the slight taste of beer and something sweet on them.

That thought wakes her up. If she can taste the beer he’d barely had a sip from, then he most definitely can taste whatever strong alcohol she’d had, which must be quite unpleasant.

Finally, Jemma breaks the kiss. They pull apart, both a little out of breath. Around them, the confetti has stopped falling, but people are still busy hugging their friends and wishing each other a Happy New Year. Nobody is paying them any attention.

Awkwardly, she pushes a strand of hair behind her ear, while Fitz clears his throat. Jemma notices that his hand that’s still holding the bottle is shaking ever so slightly.

“I’m sorry!”, she squeaks, just as Fitz asks: “What was that?”

Jemma doesn’t have enough time to figure out a good answer before he adds: “Why did you kiss me?”

“Well...” Reluctantly, she chews on her bottom lip. “It was a dare.”

Fitz’ eyebrows shoot up. “You were dared to kiss _me_?” His forehead creases in disbelief at the last word.

“I was dared to kiss _someone_ ”, Jemma explains, trying not to break eye contact. She feels as if Fitz’ blue eyes could see right through her. “I got to pick the person.”

If possible, he raises his left eyebrow even higher. “You picked me?” His mouth opens and closes a few times before finally a managed to say: “But why?”

His dumbfoundness is really quite amusing to Jemma, and she dares a shy smile. “Well, I just so happen to think that you are quite an interesting person. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been trying to get you to talk to me for weeks.”

She waits for a response, but when there isn’t one, says quietly: “I’m going to go.”

She starts turning around, when suddenly Fitz exclaims: “No wait!”

Surprised and a little startled, she stops in her motion and looks at him again just in time to see him gulp hard.

“I didn’t speak to you because I didn’t know what to say.” He mumbles it so quickly that Jemma isn’t sure she heard him right.

“What?”

“I couldn’t think of something clever enough to say to you. I wanted to impress you.” She might be imagining it, but she would have sworn that the top of his ears turned more red with every word he said.

“Impress me? That’s ridiculous!”, she huffs. “Were the youngest people here and by far the smartest. You are impressive without trying, Fitz.”

That finally gets him to smile. They’re silent for another moment, but it isn’t as awkward as before. “So”, Fitz then begins, his smile slowly growing into somewhat of a smirk, “instead of asking me why I wouldn’t speak to you, you decided to kiss me?”

Now it’s Jemma whose face is turning red. “Oh hush. I already told you, it was a dare. I had no choice. And besides, you didn’t seem to despise it, either.”

Fitz shrugs his shoulder. “I’ve had worse, I s’ppose.”

Jemma gasps in mock-offense. “Please. I’ll have you know that I’m a great kisser, confirmed by thoroughly reliable sources.”

“If you say so it must be true.”

After that, their conversation leads them to their classes, their work and their projects, and they fall into a comfortable back-and-forth of bickering, until suddenly someone touches Jemma’s shoulder.

It’s the girls who’d sat next to her during truth or dare. “Sorry to interrupt, but uhm, Christina doesn’t have her keys and I was hoping you could take her back to your room?” She points her finger towards the table where they’d played there game and Jemma spots her roommate sitting on a chair, looking ready to either fall asleep or throw up any minute.

“Oh”, she let’s out, “of course. I can take her.”

“Thanks so much, Jemma”, the girl says, and with that, she’s gone already.

Jemma turns back to Fitz and smiles apologetically. “I should go. It was nice talking to you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you, too”, he agrees, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll see you in class?”

It comes out as a question, and the hopeful tone in his voice makes Jemma grin. “Absolutely.” Quickly, before she can change her mind, she leans over and places a soft kiss on his cheeks. “Happy New Year, Fitz.”

She doesn’t see his reaction before she leaves, but the grin doesn’t leave her face for the rest of the night. Her mood doesn’t even drop when Christina throws up over her shoes twice on the way back to her room.

She’d always known that one day she’d be able to break Fitz’ shell, this just really hadn’t been the way she’d expected.

She can’t wait for class on Monday.


End file.
